Will Vankalai Village be protected from the sea erosion in Mannar?

People express grief that Sea erosion is gobbling up land in the Village of Vankalai in the Mannar-Nanattan Pradeshiya sabai  area.

Vankalai is a village with marine resources in Mannar District and engage in fishing livelihood.

Even for small high tide the sea waters invade the village, say the affected villagers.

Due to continuous sea erosion for the last 27 years, nearly 2 Kms of land had submerged, say the people. As a result of long time requests by the people 3 buffer walls were constructed some years back. Nevertheless the sea had eaten up to the buffer walls, the people say.

However, as the said buffer walls are also sinking due to sea erosion, the village people are requesting that while old buffer walls are renovated, several new walls should be constructed.

Particularly, the anti-sea erosion buffer wall in existence now is found up to only a short distance. There is a need to construct several additional buffer walls, said the affected people.

Although they had approached several factions including related officers and politicians, requesting to build the buffer wall, no constructive action had been taken by them, said the sorrowed people.

In the area where three buffer walls are built earlier considerable amount of land is safeguarded from sea erosion but in area where no wall is available the sea is advancing in claiming land areas, they say.

While saying that if the lethargy shown by the concerned officials in attending to the several years long requests by the people continued, they said that, further land will be submerged by the sea. They call for constructive action regarding the buffer walls.

Hence they request the Officials and politicians concerned to pay attention to this matter and take action with speed to protect the village from sea erosion.